KaleidoScope: Our own gallery for members' art work, crafts and photographs.

Ami2301 said:

That would be awesome to see! Thank you ? your masterpieces are absolutely stunning!

I seem to be attracted towards 'birds' & 'fish' lately in my designs. Fish in particular, as no matter what size they are they appear to be in scale within an overall design... I'll let you know once or if I've used your 'twigs' in some way. They look ideal for me to add little finches upon them perhaps...

Ami2301 said:

I originally wanted to capture people but I seem to have fell in love with trees at the moment,

'Trees' are just like people! Each one has it's own personality and individuality. 

Oooh sounds amazing!

marmalade said:

These are just a small sample of some of my work.  I have loads more but didn't want to bore you.  Some of these pieces are memorial pieces whereby I incorporate your beloved pet or lived ones ashes.  The pendants and angel wings are two of those.  I am currently working on other ideas and pendant styles for this.

I particularly like the two top paintings @marmalade and the wings are good too. I like your other pieces too, but those are my favourites :-) 

Absolutely stunning!

marmalade said:

@Roddy Thank you for the feedback it is much appreciated.  I would love to take my glass work to your level but i don't have the skill or the tools but it is very good.

@marmalade. Most of my tools I've had for a long time and I've worked with glass for most of my adult life. It's not ideal working in one small room of a care home, as a water-jet processor is best and produces the best carved glass work and can enable shapes of glass to be cut too. The glass I use is 1/2" minimum and only diamond tools will have any effect. There is a frosting-glass paste available which will produce a sandblasted effect, but it's not permanent and will wash off over time. 

A hand tip however, is that you 'could' produce a similar effect by laying a clear sheet of glass of any size upon a design, and then simply tracing it with carbon-copy paper before then adding blocks of frosting paste and/or stained glass paints (low cost) to produce Tiffany style panes/sunlight catchers. You can also obtain tubes of faux liquid lead which simply draws a raised line around each colour... Once you've mastered flat glass, you can then try vases and or drinking glasses for example. WEARING PROTECTIVE MASKS & EYESHIELDS IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST WHEN ENGRAVING/ETCHING GLASS.  NEVER ATTEMPT IT WITHOUT THEM.  Think Safe and stay Safe. 

marmalade said:

@Roddy thank you very much for that information and I will definitely give those ideid a go.  Currently I work with a microwave kiln to fuse my glass pendants.  It is just as effective as a proper kiln, however it is limited due to its size.  But I will definitely try your ideas.  I have some glass paints and the etching paste so will be fairly inexpensive for me to try it.  I will let you know how I get on.  Thanks again

@marmalade... If you have a kiln, then you could use Borosilicate coloured glass rods and tubing to make a variety of pendants. Soda glass provides more colour varieties and a much lower working temperature by the glass can easily shatter whilst cooling and needs to be heated slowly too. Borosilicate is similar to Pyrex and can withstand higher heat, plus it is stronger. You cannot mix both glass types together as they are not compatible, I have added a link below for you. A little would go a long way for the type of work that you do, and the rods or tubing is easy to cut to size. You could even make your own Millefiori (like you often see inside paperweights) simply by using several different coloured rods bound together, and then once semi molten in your kiln, remove them with tweezers and pull & twist the glass until you have a longer length. Once it is completely cool, cut the twisted cane into small shapes and imbed these into your glass shaped pendants. Much the same as a stick of Rock, if it was sliced into round sections. If that makes sense? The name inside of the stick rock is all of the way through from end to end, and so would be the coloured twist that you made... Think of molten glass as being like hot caramel or toffee. It can be worked into any shape whilst it is hot, and then it solidifies into the shape that you've made. Blowing glass however is a different story all together, and very difficult to master. I did it for 10+ years and I miss it terribly...

http://www.tuffnellglass.com/contents/en-uk/d75.html

HI @Roddy

that's a brilliant idea I never considered taking the glass out and working with it hot, now this opens a lot of different ways of working with the glass I never considered before, very exciting.  Thank you for that I appreciate it.  Could I do the same with thin glass rods I use with my bullseye?  I love your recent post and you have said it so eloquently.